April 18, 2005

Call To Action Statement on Opening of the Papal Conclave

This is a very significant moment for our church. The all male, College of Cardinals has convened to select the next Pope. Yet today in the US Catholic Church women comprise an estimated 82% of those employed as chaplains and parish ministers, and beyond that, women volunteer in huge numbers within their parish communities.

There are 783,000 women religious serving the Catholic Church worldwide, compared to 405,000 priests. Yet the insights and wisdom gained from women’s experiences are absent from the priesthood. Women have no voice and no vote in the deliberations and selection of the next Pope.

During the last quarter century, the number of Catholics worldwide has increased 50% to over 1 billion, while the number of priests has remained roughly constant. Obviously the priest shortage is growing at an exponential rate. In the US the Church acknowledges how few men are entering the priesthood. Right now we only have 1 priest for every 1300 Catholics and that ratio is expected to grow dramatically worse in the next 10 years. Right now Central and South America have one priest for 7000 Catholics and Africa has one priest for 4800 Catholics.

I think it is safe to say that without the work of women the Roman Catholic Church would soon cease to function. So we gather today to pray that the Holy Spirit inspires the Cardinals to elect a Pope who recognizes, not only the injustice of excluding women in these ways, but also the long term threat this poses to the welfare of the Church itself.

A recent AP poll of US Catholics showed that 60% want ordination to the priesthood to be open to women. Some polls have shown an even larger percentage in favor. Clearly we, and particularly the Women’s Ordination Conference, have made great strides in educating Catholics about this issue. We need to keep nurturing the dialogue. Keep prodding the institution. Keep supporting one another in this most important work.